'Bridgewater Triangle' subject of a dark documentary

Friday

Oct 18, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 18, 2013 at 5:20 PM

If you live in SouthCoast, you almost surely have heard the myths, legends and claims surrounding the "Bridgewater Triangle" — a giant swath of 200 square miles, the three points of which are Abington, Rehoboth and East Freetown.

Lauren Daley

Once upon a time, as legend has it, there was a Native American princess in love with a white man — but her father didn't approve.

The tribe killed the white man and, despondent, the princess jumped to her death from the ledge in the Freetown State Forest.

For years, people have claimed to see her ghost on those cliffs — The Lady of the Ledge.

Other people claim to have seen Bigfoot in the same area.

Others claim to have seen UFOs.

Still others blame the death of horses or dogs in the area on a giant wolf or mountain lion that nobody ever seems to be able to find.

There have been sightings of a giant pterodactyl-like creature, or a "Thunderbird," in the area.

And then there are those who claim to have seen Pukwudgies ... what's a Pukwudgie, you ask?

Oh, nothing. Just your average 2 or 3-foot-tall, half-troll, half-human with smooth gray skin and back full of porcupine quills, who can glow, create fire at will, has poison arrows and who can disappear — and watch out, because they've been known to lure humans to their deaths.

If you live in SouthCoast, you almost surely have heard the myths, legends and claims surrounding the "Bridgewater Triangle" — a giant swath of 200 square miles, the three points of which are Abington, Rehoboth and East Freetown.

It includes, notably, swaths of land near Dighton Rock, Bridgewater, the Massasoit State Park and Freetown State Forest.

"I've always been interested in spooky things, but I'm a big-time skeptic; it takes a lot to convince me of these things," said Aaron Cadieux, co-director of "The Bridgewater Triangle: A Documentary."

The film premiere, along with special events, takes place from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at UMass Dartmouth. The film airs at 2 p.m. in the main auditorium, followed by a Q&A session with the cast and crew, including Cadieux, co-director Manny Famolare and cryptozoology writer Loren Coleman, who coined the term "Bridgewater triangle" in the 1970s.

"We approached the subject from a journalistic point of view — we're not trying to convince anyone of anything," said Cadieux, of Dartmouth. "We just talked to people who claim to have seen things, or who have stories to tell."

For decades, the triangle has been the site of a host of purported paranormal activity — and undisputable criminal and satanic cult activity, said Cadieux.

He cited the many dead bodies that have been found in the area over the years, the number of suicides in the Triangle, and the "satanic cult activities" in the Freetown State Forest.

A dozen baby cows were found drained of blood, supposedly sacrificed, in the woods in the 1990s, he said.

"People claim that a negative energy surrounds the Freetown State Forest. We present the negative-energy theory as a theory, nothing more. I mean, it's a secluded woodland area readily accessible to a large population of people," said Cadieux.

He and Famolare searched through old newspaper articles to find people who seemed to have legitimate tales to tell, to weed out the "fame seekers," he said.

"There were a couple of people who even made me, as a skeptic, raise an eyebrow," he said.

For instance, one man had a "bizarre creature encounter in Raynham. He (said he) saw this 3-foot tall, hair-covered creature while walking his dog. He waited 20 years before he told his story because he was afraid of people judging him, or possibly losing his job," Cadieux said. "People theorize that he saw a Pukwudgie."

Pukwudgies stem from Wampanoag folklore, and much of the activity in the Bridgewater Triangle is attributed to negative energy stemming from King Philip's War, paranormal researchers say.

Tim Weisberg — co-host on the WBSM radio show Spooky Southcoast, author of "Ghosts of the SouthCoast" and a longtime Standard-Times contributing writer — is featured in the documentary, discussing reports of ghost activity in the Triangle.

"Some researchers believe that the English (settlers) taking King Philip's wampum belt placed a curse on the region," said Weisberg, who believes in a darker energy in the Triangle area, blaming it on metaphysical and scientific reasons like the abundance of quartz. "King Philip's War was the bloodiest war per-capita in American history; a larger portion of the population died during that war than in the Civil War.

"You've heard of people saying, 'My house is haunted, because it was built on an Indian burial ground?' Well, this entire region was one big, bloody battlefield and, subsequently, a giant burial ground, too."

Spooky Southcoast will host a special online show from the premiere. Learn more at www.spookysouthcoast.com.

Tickets for the premiere are available online at http://thebridgewatertriangle

documentary.com and can be picked up at the will-call table the day of the event.

Tickets will be sold at the door only if unsold tickets remain.

The premiere is also available streaming online. Tickets to watch the film on your PC or Internet tablet are $8 and available on the film's website.

Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. Contact her at ldaley33@gmail.com

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